Now
you’ll find that on many new cars you can not even special order…
Manual windows
A spare tire, even a compact spare is now optional on the new Malibu’s
I forgot. The Fairlane didn’t have back-up lights either. It didn’t take long to find out what was wrong.
I remember my grandfather’s '62 Chevy II.
He would put $1 of gas in it and drive from Wash. DC to Fredricksburg VA and back, 80 miles.
Route 95 had recently opened, two lanes each way.
My '75 Civic had the plastic pouch for windshield fluid.
I was recently looking at used car ads in a newspaper from the '60s. In the description of the cars options they listed heaters and radios. I don’t recall heaters ever truly being an option (especially in THIS part of the country) but it was interesting to see them listed!
I had several cars that didn’t have windshield washers on them.
Yes, we’ve come a long way! Our 1940 Chevy had no ashtray, no turn signals, no backup lights, no seat belts, no ww washers, no cigarette lighter, no passenger sun visor, no locks to hold the 2 door front seat backs in place.
My 1948 Chevy had no turn signals, only one sun visor, no ww washers, no seat belts, no right hand mirror.
My 1965 Dodge dart, in standard trim was very basic. I had to pay extra for: rear seat belts, variable speed wipers, ww washers, under hood pad, rear trunk mat, carpeting, tinted windows, front sway “eliminator”, and deluxe wheeldisks with the “Ben Hur” spinners. Many things we have now standard were not even available then.
Yes, we’ve come a long way! Our 1940 Chevy had no ashtray, no turn signals, no backup lights, no seat belts, no ww washers, no cigarette lighter, no passenger sun visor, no locks to hold the 2 door front seat backs in place.
And many cars these days now don’t have a cigarette lighter or ashtray…Which I’m very pleased about…They do have accessory jacks at least.
“no locks to hold the 2 door front seat backs in place.”
Yup!
My first car to have this feature was my '71 Charger.
While it was a nice feature to have, unfortunately it was so poorly engineered that the passenger seat rattled loudly against the lock mechanism on rough pavement unless the seat was occupied. Very annoying, to say the least.
DfromSD
Heaters were an option on many cars at least through the mid 1950s. If you didn’t want to pay what the factory had to offer, you could order a heater from Sears or Montgomery Ward and have it installed. In those days, the heater was a box that hung down under the dashboard and recirculated the interior air. However, it was optional equipment.
one modern piece of equipment I love on my car is the backup camera. For the high riding cars with poor rearward visibility(which is pretty much EVERY car), this comes in handy so you can see what’s behind you. I could see this being very useful if you towed, as well.
I remember when outside rear view mirrors were not standard equipment. I had the dealer install a left side rear view mirror on my 1965 Rambler. Inside remote control mirrors weren’t available. Many stores sold outside rear view mirrors, but most people only put one on the left side of the car.
I could have used a backup camera on my 1947 Pontiac Streamliner fastback. The rear window was more like a skylight. It was more difficult than any car today to see what was behind.
On the other hand, I had a 1953 Plymouth on which the heater and defroster were independent. Each had its own fan and controls. It did lack dash vents, though.
Dash vents did not become commonplace until A/C became a fairly common option on new cars. Even though some cars had a “vent” function to their heating system in the '50s & '60s, these vents were almost always located underneath the dashboard–usually on the kick panels.
Even when A/C started to become either standard equipment or at least a frequent option, dash vents still failed to exist on some cars. I can vividly recall my uncle’s Imperial LeBaron, circa 1964. The A/C vents on the Imperial consisted of two outlets tacked onto the bottom edge of the dashboard plus the two “defrost” vents on the top of the dashboard. When you used the A/C, you could pivot those defrost vents in an ingenious way, so that they pointed toward the passengers, rather than toward the windshield.
I don’t think that dash vents became commonplace on most cars until at least the late '60s, so it certainly isn’t surprising that your '53 Plymouth lacked them.
My dad’s 1939 Chevrolet did not have a defroster. The slots were there below the windshield, and there was a recirculating heater under the dashboard that was installed at the factory, but there were no tubes leading up to the defroster outlets. I think that was an option.
When the Ford Pinto came out in 1971, carpeting was an option. The stock floor covering was a big rubber mat.
My 1976 Ford van did not have dash vents, but did have defrost vents. It also had outside air vents that could be opened by opening a large door on either side under the dash. The lid to these doors reminded me of opening an old fashioned bread box.
When the Ford Pinto came out in 1971, carpeting was an option. The stock floor covering was a big rubber mat.
That was actually very common on many cars (especially trucks) back then.
Yup!
Our '59 Plymouth Belvedere had a really depressing-looking black rubber floor covering. Even though the Belvedere was not the entry-level model (the Savoy was the cheapo-stripper model), it did not have standard carpeting.
Also–the Belvedere’s kick panels were cardboard, like what CSA described in the early VW Rabbit.
VDCdriver, About That "like what CSA described in the early VW Rabbit."
I Remember Writing That, But I’ve Checked 3 Times And It’s Gone, Disappeared ! Where’d It Go ?
Do You Still See It From Where You Sit ?
CSA
CSA
I was wondering the same thing!
No, it does not appear in this thread anymore.
Is it possible that you posted it in another thread–even though it seems logical that you would have posted it in this one?
I can’t believe that it could have been deleted for being offensive, but why else would your post from yesterday have disappeared already?
'tis a mystery!